We live, simultaneously, in two different worlds. Ultimately, we live in the World of Nature, a world that we did not create and the world upon which all life depends. Most immediately, we inhabit a "human world" that we create ourselves. Because our human world is the result of our own choices and actions, we can say, quite properly, that we live, most immediately, in a “political world.” In this blog, I hope to explore the interaction of these two worlds that we call home.

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Gary A. Patton

I was an elected official in Santa Cruz County, California for twenty years, from 1975 to 1995. Now, I am an environmental attorney, practicing law in Santa Cruz County. If you would like to contact me, send me an email at gapatton@mac.com.

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Thursday, June 14, 2012

#165 / Doom And Gloom

I do regularly advertise the many problems that we confront, and I do suggest that they are "serious."

Maybe that is enough to justify the "doom and gloom" label.

My basic proposition, however, is NOT that we are "doomed." Quite the opposite. I believe that we live most immediately in a world that we create ourselves, and that our power to change this human reality is plenary. There are no "inevitabilities" in the world we create. Anything is possible.

Literally.

Of course, "anything" can mean "bad things," as well as "good things." We can make both our "dreams" and our "nightmares" come true.

It's up to us.

There is a "limit," however, on our ability to shape reality. This limit is imposed by the laws of the world of Nature, the world we don't create, and the world upon which we are ultimately dependent.

I send out periodic warnings about the truly dangerous problems we are ignoring (global warming, for instance). The message, though, is not that we are inevitably "doomed."

The message is that we had better start paying attention to the world of Nature, and to the limits it imposes, and should start making different choices in the world that we both create and control.